Stardew Valley creator's Haunted Chocolatier is "more of an action RPG"
Stardew Valley creator's new game, Haunted Chocolatier, is "more of an action RPG" than farming sim
Stardew Valley creator's new game, Haunted Chocolatier, is "more of an action RPG" than farming sim
Stardock founder and CEO Brad Wardell discussed Clairvoyance, an app that began as an internal tool and is now free, running a team of AI agents locally on Windows, macOS and Linux on top of tools like Claude Code and Codex. He said much of game-making time goes to grunt work such as build errors, importers and hunting for assets, so AI's best use is freeing artists and designers to create rather than replacing them. He argued digital distribution, not AI, is breaking AAA economics, with around 30,000 games expected on Steam this year making attention the scarce resource.
A fan mod called Crowd Play Respawned recreates Telltale's Crowd Play audience-voting feature for Minecraft: Story Mode Season Two and adds it to Season One, which never had it built in. It links each game's live choices, timer, pause state and host selection to a voting server running on the host's computer, with guests voting via a phone or desktop browser using a room code, link or QR code. The first release supports specified 64-bit Windows GOG versions of both seasons and does not provide either game or restore Telltale's original infrastructure.
Solo developer Joe has announced We Will Die For You, a game where you guide a white blood cell through the human body to break apart debris, fight disease, and collect Protein. Each cell eventually dies, but what it collected is spent on permanent upgrades for the next one, with abilities including satellites, chain lightning, missiles, spikes, lasers, and a toxic trail. The game is targeting Q1 2027 on Steam and can be wishlisted now.
York Games is developing Ascend: Journey beyond the clouds, a physics-based precision platformer where players control Zeo, a tiny golden cube, using slingshot mechanics to launch across floating platforms toward the Sun. The full game will feature 12 stages and is targeting release on Steam (PC), Android, and iOS. A free playable demo with the first 3 stages launched this weekend on itch.io, playable in browser, on PC, or mobile.
Game developers on Reddit are debating whether Game Jam still has meaning as generative AI spreads through the scene, with one poster saying nearly half the participants at a recent jam were "vibe coding." Critics argue AI-generated entries flood the field and undermine community exchange, noting that GMTK and Brackeys jams have disqualified a considerable number of games, while supporters say AI only removes tedious mechanical work and the goal of shipping a complete game still stands.
The Order of the Falling Star, developed by Jonathan Blow, launched on October 9 for Steam, PS5, and Switch 2, reaching 97% positive reviews on Steam but a peak of only just over 6,300 concurrent players. The game took ten years and roughly 200 million yuan to make, and its best PS5 bestseller chart placement was 40th in North America. It offers four parallel worlds and about 500 hours of content with no difficulty options, and the official Chinese voice-over is confirmed to arrive about a month after launch.
Re:Departure, the first game from Bilibili creator Wang Laoju's Future Technology studio, launches on Steam on October 23. It is a 2D adventure game blending light roguelike and incremental progression, where players drive a battle vehicle by working a mechanical dashboard of levers and dials. The Early Access version includes 4 world biomes, more than 30 characters, 60 devices and 100 relics. Wang Laoju announced his move into game development in 2019, started and abandoned at least three projects, and said in 2023 that he had spent 6 million yuan of his savings.
The demo of Teach My Little Sister How To Drive, a driving-teaching sim from four-person studio Easy Fox, went viral on Steam and social platforms, with playtest numbers growing more than 20-fold in a month. Because the sister's voice is generated in real time by a cloud large language model, daily AI costs exceed 160,000 yen, about 7,000 yuan, forcing the team to take out a bank loan to keep servers running and to say the demo may be taken down early. The studio says the full release will fold AI costs into its price so buyers pay no extra token fees.
The Escape the Backrooms development team announced that the "Lost & Found" update will launch on October 29, kicking off its Q4 2026 roadmap. The update includes 2 free Wanderer skins and 5 DLC skins from the "Lost & Found Appearance Pack." The team said this is only the first step, with new levels also planned and more details to be announced soon.
Global publisher Boltray Games will showcase five games spanning survival, action and adventure at Beijing Fusion 2026, including The Walking Dead: Dark Days, Hela: A Mouse's Journey, Tram Riders, This Dragon Carries a Blade and Void Diver: Escape the Abyss. The event runs October 24 and 25 at Shougang International Convention Center in Beijing, with single-day tickets priced at 139 yuan full price and 129 yuan discounted via Bilibili Member Purchase.
The Railway Man, a psychological horror game from 11 bit studios and Harvester Games' Rem Michalski, will launch on PC Steam on March 10, 2027. Players take the role of Troy, a new railway crossing keeper working a one-month contract in a remote area while trying to quit drinking and win back his wife's trust. The game has players memorize train schedules, raise and lower the crossing barriers, and manage hunger, sleep, and hygiene while deciding what to prioritize in limited time.
Newly formed studio Team Instant Defeat, together with 11 Studios, has officially announced the fast-paced top-down action roguelike Plot Dream Battle. Players build the battlefield from a single tile, fighting alien enemies invading the depths of their consciousness, with each new tile offering weapons, upgrades, healing, tools, defenses, and risky combo effects. Failing sends players back to a liquid tank, but they restart with the experience and knowledge they have accumulated.
Bumper Bout is a two-player competitive pinball game that was featured as the final game of the Omegathon at PAX Australia. Players compete on split halves of the screen and can flick balls across the divide to harass their opponent, with bumper hits earning attack balls that unlock character ultimates when four are stored. The game will launch on October 29 with singleplayer arcade and survival modes planned, plus online multiplayer in the final version, and a demo is available on Steam.
POLYFORGE Games has released a new gameplay trailer for its debut game, Good Luck, Little Truck! Players take on the role of a newly sentient robot kei truck delivering supplies and building community among robot and human inhabitants in a hopeful post-post-apocalyptic island nation. The genre-bending cozy navigation puzzler/narrative delivery sim is now available to wishlist on Steam.
Big Walk is $15.99 on US eShop https://buff.ly/NBG211b
WL Digital has made Rollbound, a mobile dice roguelite inspired by Balatro. Players roll five dice, hold the ones they want and reroll the rest, scoring chips × mult while stacking charms, leveling up hands and carving dice. It includes 8 antes with bosses, an Endless mode and a Daily run, with no ads and an iOS version coming soon.
ArchiusDev has unveiled Mancalero, a turn-based strategy board game marble builder inspired by Mancala and Balatro, where players sow marbles, build a collection of special marbles, use custom boards, and defeat rule-changing bosses for higher scores. The v1.02 update to the Demo is out for Windows, macOS, and Linux with controller and SteamDeck support, and the full release is set for November alongside a NextFest appearance.
Solo developer Sabarts Studios has revealed WW.Heaven, a short first person narrative-focused platformer and collect-athon about the afterlife. The game is releasing soon, with a trailer and Steam page already available.
Zymartu Games has released a major update to the Fields of Aaru demo for Steam Next Fest, adding digging and irrigation that let players dig channels, reshape farmland and repair a water wheel and shaduf. The free Steam demo now supports six new languages: Japanese, Simplified Chinese, French, German, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. The full game is planned for a PC Steam release around Q1 2027.
Solo dev tkayyy's creature card battler The Cup now has a free demo live on Steam. Each side fields three real North American animals plus a few cryptids, with every card printing its own odds, such as the armadillo always hitting for 2 and the eagle rolling a d12 that misses on 1 through 5 but hits every enemy at once on a 12, all called by two hosts for an alien TV audience. The demo includes the tutorial, THE ROAD (five bouts against invasive species) and matches against the House, while the full game arrives November 10 with Steam multiplayer.
Rivals of Aether II (Steam) w/ 7 more games is $16 on Humble Indie Fighters Bundle https://buff.ly/ajwgkRf #ad
Enchanted Pumpkin Co. has revealed The Christmas Bakeshop, a bakery shop simulator set in a touristic mountain village where players supply festive breads, pastries, and sweet treats. The game features a dynamic bakeshop rating (45% product variety, 33% decoration, 22% cleanliness), 60 unlockable recipes, staff hiring, loans, advertising campaigns, and bill management, with up to 12 awards to earn. It is coming to Steam.
Maarti Games is developing Goeland: Seagull Adventure, a game where players live as a seagull on a living island, exploring freely and tackling a todo list of ridiculous activities while investigating a mysterious pollution. Described as Untitled Goose Game meets A Short Hike, the demo goes live on Steam this week. If players stream the game, viewers can interact in real-time to help or sabotage the seagull's shenanigans.
GG Studio is working on Little Cleaner, a cozy cleaning sim where you play as a lonely robot on a deserted Earth in the distant future, gathering trash, converting it into energy, upgrading tools, and planting new life to heal the Planet. Development started a couple of months ago and the team just released its first gameplay trailer, with a Steam page now live. The game is inspired by WALL-E, Leaf it Alone, and Leafy Corner.
AskaLot Games has revealed Deserter, an immersive isometric stealth RPG about a thief surviving in a decaying totalitarian city. Players break into houses to steal food and medicine, with over 100 skills and talents and a security system that tightens as the city remembers every heist. A demo is available on its Steam page.
Beyond the Grove is a colorful RTS-inspired autobattler with roguelite elements from Not a Duck Games, letting players mix 7 elements to craft over 50 unique golems across Story and Survival modes. It is 40% off on Steam for one week and is currently in Early Access, with the studio self-funded and without a publisher. The game features 6 playable Grove Keepers, 100+ upgrades called blessings, hand-drawn art, and in-house live-recorded music.
The Unbreakable Gumball is an open-world superhero game set inside a comic book, where players jump, swing and glide around a city of the future. It supports both standard play and virtual reality, and a demo is available now on Steam and itch.io.
Solo developer Megaglope has released a new demo for Into the Crypt, a first-person roguelike deckbuilder, with the full release set for Oct 29. The game supports solo and co-op play, with players using cards and keys on doors while fighting enemies across multiple dungeon depths. It is inspired by Slay the Spire, and co-op is available in the full release version.
Business coach Martijn van Zwieten says your indie studio's BHAG, or Big Hairy Audacious Goal, should be like the mountain in Journey: "a clear, shared goal that will take significant effort to reach" https://bit.ly/4AEHrqD
Solo developer Aryel has revealed Skate N Chill, a relaxed single-player skateboarding sandbox about building your own spot and skating it as you build. Players can sculpt bowls, connect pump tracks, and place ramps, rails, and ledges, plus customize skaters and trick poses and save moments with a replay editor. The game is still in development for PC, with Steam Early Access planned for Q1 2027.
Escape from EloHello has me reliving my worst online PvP nightmares in roguelike-form https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/escape-from-elohello-has-me-reliving-my-worst-online-pvp-nightmares-in-roguelike-form/
Alnutmob's arcade-style single-player cooking game Burger Smash gets a free demo on October 12 at 12:00 PM EEST as part of Steam Cooking Fest, covering the first 5 levels with the tech tree included. Players plan kitchen layouts, grill burgers and keep orders flowing under pressure, unlocking playable characters with their own perks between shifts. The game is coming to PC via Steam with single-player and full Xbox controller support, and a full release is planned for January 2027.
Escape from EloHello is a strategy roguelike in which players collect MMR while climbing from Iron 4 to Challenger, rank 1, within 60 matches before the season resets. MMR can only be gained by winning matches, and players must gamble on their ability to win to earn long-term effects. In the writer's first season, 48 wins and 12 losses only reached Bronze 3; a second run climbed to Silver 1 before falling back to Bronze 3.
1 day left to add free Steam games (offer ends Oct 12, 10 AM PT):
South Korean indie team NEUTWORK is developing PARALLAX: AXIS, a spatial puzzle game where the route you find through three-dimensional space changes the music's rhythm, pitch, and resonance. A free six-puzzle version is playable in browsers now, with each completed puzzle revealing part of a poem and all six assembling a constellation that grants one of 18 instrument types based on how you found your way. The full Steam version is in development with 150 puzzles.
Solo developer Angel Shift Games has released its first published demo on Steam for Devour Protocol, a reverse tower defense where you invade a stronghold instead of defending one. Players pick a target armed with guns and hazards and attack it with a swarm of bots, earning resources for a skill tree that grows the swarm, extends its reach and unlocks new abilities.
This Control-inspired action game set in a 'planet-scale alien mind' looks absolutely stunning https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/this-control-inspired-action-game-set-in-a-planet-scale-alien-mind-has-one-of-the-most-stunning-art-styles-ive-seen-this-year/
Kinmoku has revealed Ace & Aro: Heart-to-Heart, a short narrative game where players talk freely with a-spec characters and learn about their journeys. Set in a barcade, it includes Boogie Beat Revolution, Pixel Pieces and Queer Quiz, playable alone or with new friends. A demo, Ace & Aro: One Night Early, launched this week on Steam ahead of Steam Next Fest.
Gumgo has announced Charlatan, a roguelike about cheating a slot machine where players gradually gain more ways to manipulate the reels and build ridiculous combinations during a run. The studio has opened a playtest and is asking players for feedback on builds, strategies, confusing parts, and balance issues.